Dunhuang owns its unique land, sunshine, water conservancy, agricultural by-products, mineral products and tourist resources. Among them, the tourism, agriculture, industry and trade are the four important pillars of Dunhuang. Since the Third Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the municipal Party Committee and the government of Dunhuang have formulated the economic development strategy of being thriving with tourism, stable with agriculture, competent with industry and vigorous with trade. According to the thought of setting the industry as the most important one in order to bring along the other three to get advanced, they speed up the construction of tourist reception facilities and city auxiliary facilities and develop tourist products. They consoled ate the foundation of agriculture, adjust the industrial structure, develop the varieties of the fruits and vegetables, build greenhouses and attach great importance to the highly efficient agricultural industry of three-dimensional planting.
Besides, they also develop the tourist products with unique characteristics of Dunhuang, such as the handicraft carpet, phosphorescent jade made cup, colorful sculpture, statue of Buddha, crystal glasses, crafted camel, calligraphy and painting, stone statue, woodcut and industrial art ceramics. So, the economy of Dunhuang has been developed quickly and exceedingly through establishing markets and accelerating the circulation. In 1996, Dunhuang took the lead in becoming a comfortably off city. The per capita income of peasants reached to 3,027 yuan. The income of its tourism made up 22.4 per cent of the gross national product. Nowadays, Dunhuang is striving towards being an international tourist place and a more comfortably off city.